#3: [11-Jul-10]

#2: [05-Aug-06]

20-Jan-2001 -- I first heard about the confluence project through Adena Schutzberg's 'GIS Monitor' e-newsletter. A week later, my family was flying to my father-in-law's surprise 80th birthday party near Edmonton, Alberta. I realized there were a couple of neaby confluence points and would try this out.

The nearest confluence, however, was in Pigeon Lake, so I drove 1.5 hours to the next one, near Hwy #13 just beyond the village of Bittern Lake. As my GPS units (hooked up to my Palm III) indicated I was getting close, I noticed a white car parked on the side of the road. I pulled over, and began following the coordinates being read out by the GPS.

I noticed a man crawling through the barbed wire fence. As Tim Martin noticed me, he called out, "Are you the landowner?" We quickly determined we were on the same adventure. He indicated the confluence point was beyond the grove of trees.

Just then his partner, Cathy Fortune, came up to us, having walked via the road. She reported I could drive up to the confluence point via the side road and the farmer's access road. I told them about the other point located in Pigeon Lake. Mr. Martin had his skiis along, and hoped for thick ice.

(In an email to me later, he reported the ice was thick enough to drive on, but he skiied anyhow. Since his photos of his GPS didn't turn out, Mr. Martin was good enough to allow me to claim this confluence for myself.)

I drove near to the confluence point, and after walking a few yards, found the point where my GPS read out 0000 and 0000. I saw no other footprints, indicating that Mr. Martin's and my GPS units gave different results.

I took the photos with my Epson PhotoPC 800 camera, including enough to make a QuickTime panoramic view.

Quicktime VR Movie (for viewing: save the files by right-clicking on the link and open separately using QuickTime):

• A panoramic view of the confluence